■&e  r , 


iyGiJ.\L  St*-' 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


A DISCOURSE  ON 


AFRICAN  COLONIZATION 


IN  ITS  MISSIONARY  ASPECTS, 

AND  IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  SLAVERY  AND  ABOLITION. 


PREACHED  ON  SABBATH  MORNING,  JULY  4tH,  1852,  IN  THE  SEVENTH  PRES- 
BYTERIAN CHURCH,  PENN  SQUARE,  PHILADELPHIA. 


BY 


WILLIAM  HENRY  RUFFNER, 

PASTOR. 


Ethiopia  shall  soon  stretch  out  her  hands  unto  God. — Psalm  Ixviii.  31. 


PHILADELPHIA : 

WILLIAM  S.  M ARTIE N. 
1852. 


Rev.  William  H.  Rcffxer, 


Philadelphia,  July  5th,  1852. 


Dear  Sir  : — The  undersigned,  members  ofyour  church  and  congregation,  haying  listened 
with  great  satisfaction  and  interest  to  the  discourse  preached  by  you  on  the  morning  of 
Sabbath  the  4th  inst.  and  belieying  that  the  cause  which  it  advocates  will  be  promoted  by 
its  being  more  largely  disseminated,  we  would  respectfully  ask  a copy  for  publication. 

We  are,  Dear  Sir, 

Very  respectfully  and  truly  yours,  &c. 


F.  A.  Bokee, 
George  Sharsivood, 
Thomas  Reath, 
Alfred  Martiex, 

E.  Warwick, 
George  N.  Eckert, 
Samuel  A.  Lewis, 
Thomas  Bellas, 
Robert  Keltox, 

R.  M.  Pattersox, 
Isaac  H.  Whyte, 


James  Ottersox,  Jr. 
Alexaxder  Boyd, 

D.  Watt, 

James  Bellas, 

Jos.  W.  Cowax, 

Hood  Simpsox, 

S.  Augustus  Mitchell, 
Johx  Gibsox, 

William  McFaddex, 
Charles  II.  Graff, 
Johx  Wilsox. 


Philadelphia,  October  4, 1852. 

Gextlemex: — My  long  delay  in  rendering  a formal  reply  to  your  communication  of  July 
5th,  has  not  been  the  result  of  a low  appreciation  of  what  is  due  to  you  personally,  or  to 
your  kind  and  complimentary  request.  It  has  been  occasioned,  first  by  the  undecided  state 
of  my  mind  as  to  allowing  the  discourse  to  be  published,  and  then  by  a number  of  circum- 
stances personal  to  myself,  which  prevented  my  preparing  a legible  copy  for  the  printer. 

Thanking  you  for  your  attention  and  your  patience,  I place  the  manuscript  at  your  dis- 
posal, with  the  hope  that,  under  the  Divine  blessing,  some  good  may  accrue  to  a noble 
cause  from  its  publication. 

With  sentiments  of  high  regard  for  each  one  of  you, 

I am,  gentlemen,  your  sincere  friend  and  pastor, 

WILLIAM  IIENRY  RHFFNER. 


To  Messrs.  F.  A.  Bokee, 

George  Sharswood, 
Thomas  Reath, 
James  Ottersox, 
Alexaxder  Boyd, 

D.  Watt,  and  others. 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


Ethiopia  shall  soon  stretch  out  her  hands  unto  God. — Psalm  Ixviii.  31. 


Many  persons  now  live  who  well  remember  the  con- 
test, in  England,  concerning  the  duty  of  attempt- 
ing the  work  of  evangelizing  the  world.  But  since 
the  day  when  John  Foster  laid,  his  heavy  hand  on 
Sydney  Smith,  the  question  has  been  virtually  set- 
tled. Christianity  was  then  born  into  a higher, 
purer,  freer  mode  of  existence  than  the  cold  obstruc- 
tion in  which  it  lay  before.  English  piety  then  de- 
monstrated that  English  power  had  a nobler  mission 
to  heathen  nations  than  that  of  plunder,  war,  and 
oppression.  American  Christianity,  enjoying  a free- 
dom unknown  since  the  days  of  Constantine,  not 
only  admits  her  whole  duty  to  the  heathen  world, 
but  is  dealing  with  the  largest  ideas,  and  probably, 
in  the  evolution  of  God’s  Providence,  is  destined  to 
achieve  the  mightiest  results  in  the  restoration  of 
ruined  man,  of  all  the  nations  of  Christendom.  The 
judgment,  conscience,  and  affections  of  Christian 
people  in  our  land  are  fairly  won  in  favour  of  uni- 
versal missions.  They  need  only  to  be  stimulated 
and  guided. 


0 AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 

Of  all  foreign  missionary  fields,  there  is  no  one  so 
calculated  to  stir  the  American  heart  as  Africa. 
Africa  is  at  the  lowest  degree  in  the  scale  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  America  is  fast  rising  to  the  highest : a 
vast  ocean  rolls  between  them;  they  know  but  lit- 
tle of  each  other,  have  less  present  intercommuni- 
cation than  most  other  nations,  yet  how  intimate, 
how  wonderful  the  conjunction  between  these  ex- 
tremes of  civilization ! That  negro-slavery  is  an 
anomaly  in  American  civilization,  can  hardly  be 
denied,  but  that  it  is  an  anomaly  in  the  world’s  pro- 
gress, no  considerate  mind  will  affirm.  Potiphar 
bought  Joseph  of  the  Ishmaelites  and  made  him  his 
slave,  but  there  was  then  instituted  a relation,  inti- 
mate and  interesting,  and  pregnant  with  vast  and 
beneficent  results.  American  Christians  are  com- 
pelled to  be  cautious  in  speaking  on  this  theme,  and 
have  directed  their  efforts  more  to  some  other  por- 
tion of  heathendom  than  to  Africa;  but  beneath  this 
external  reserve  there  is  a tender  and  lively  interest 
in  all  that  pertains  to  the  negro  and  the  negro’s 
fatherland,  which  will  gradually  work  itself  out  into 
the  grandest  manifestations. 

It  is  not  my  intention  to  speak  of  the  whole  of 
the  continent  of  Africa,  but  only  of  that  portion 
which  lies  south  of  the  Great  Desert.  The  northern 
division  of  the  continent,  inhabited  by  Moors,  and 
fronting  on  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  has  had  a very 
different  history,  and  will  have  a very  different  fu- 
ture, from  the  central  and  southern  divisions.  The 
central  and  western  region  is  by  far  the  most  im- 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


< 


portant  part  of  the  country,  is  the  one  with  which 
we  as  a nation  have  had  and  will  have  most  to  do, 
and  which  will  occupy  our  attention  chiefly  on  this 
occasion.  It  now  contains  a vast  population,  proba- 
bly four  times  as  great  as  the  United  States;  but  its 
capabilities  are  so  unbounded  that  it  may  sustain  a 
very  much  larger  number  of  inhabitants.  Its  soil  is 
not  surpassed,  if  equalled,  in  the  world.  Its  immense 
vegetation  grows  unchecked  throughout  the  year. 
The  tropical  fruits  which  are  brought  to  us  as  luxu- 
ries, and  many,  which  cannot  be  transported,  there 
abound  in  the  utmost  profusion.  How  would  we  be 
charmed  to  stand  among  its  groves  of  orange,  olive, 
banana  and  palm.  How  delighted  to  behold,  hang- 
ing around  us  in  the  most  lavish  abundance,  the 
lemon,  pine-apple,  mango,  plantain,  lime,  and  pome- 
granate. How  impressed  to  walk  among  her  gigantic 
forest-trees,  interlaced  with  vines,  and  sheltering  the 
mightiest  animals  that  tread  the  earth.  There  are 
found  dye-woods,  ship-timber,  and  timber  for  cabi- 
net and  common  building  purposes  in  great  variety, 
and  of  great  excellence.  Many  of  our  condiments 
and  articles  belonging  to  our  Materia  Medica  are  nowr 
brought  from  there,  and  may  be  procured  in  any 
quantity.  Almost  all  the  productions  comprised  in 
the  departments  of  horticulture,  farming,  and  plant- 
ing, grow  there  with  astonishing  exuberance.  The 
face  of  the  country  is  diversified,  much  of  it  being 
hilly  and  mountainous.  It  is  well  watered,  abounds 
in  valuable  minerals,  including  gold  and  iron,  has 
no  epidemic  diseases,  and  not  a great  many  of  any 


8 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


kind,  and  according  to  Dr.  Lugenbeel,  it  has  a 
pleasant  climate,  and  one  which  is  healthy  to  the 
African  race.  Its  waters,  too,  afford  an  abundance 
of  fish.  In  a word,  it  contains  the  elements  of  com- 
fort and  wealth  in  boundless  profusion. 

Excepting  a small  proportion  of  Arabs,  who 
crossed  the  Great  Desert  during  the  middle  ages  and 
settled  among  them,  this  region  is  inhabited  by  the 
pure  negro  race.  This  race,  although  very  de- 
graded, probably  possesses  much  higher  capabilities 
than  are  usually  ascribed  to  it.  It  is,  perhaps,  inju- 
dicious in  the  friends  of  the  negro,  to  contend  for 
an  intellectual  equality  between  the  white  and  black 
races.  Diversities  in  this  particular  are  common 
over  the  whole  earth  among  nations  of  the  same 
race,  as  well  as  among  those  of  different  races.  No 
doubt  the  Africans  are  nearly  equal  to  the  Chinese, 
and  superior  to  some  branches  of  the  races  consid- 
ered superior  to  theirs,  as  for  example  the  twenty- 
five  millions  of  Russian  serfs.  But  the  mind  of  man 
is  modified  by  circumstances,  as  well  as  his  body. 
And  the  intellect  of  the  negro  has  suffered  from  the 
protracted  disadvantages  under  which  he  has  la- 
boured. No  one,  however,  can  assign  any  limit  to 
the  improvement  which  may  be  effected  under  suita- 
ble culture;  and  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt 
that  the  negro  has  abundant  capacity  for  all  the  ordi- 
nary affairs  of  human  life,  including  self-government, 
and  may  attain  to  as  high  a degree  of  civilization  as 
any  other  race.  There  are  indeed  some  features  in 
the  negro  character  of  peculiar  interest.  Of  all 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION.  9 

others  he  is  the  kindest,  brightest,  gayest,  and  most 
inclined  to  religion.  He  has  eloquence,  grace,  and 
wit,  a gorgeous  fancy  and  a most  touching  pathos. 
As  the  sun  declines  in  Africa,  the  stupid  Dutch  boor 
of  the  south  lights  his  pipe  and  sits  down  in  moody 
silence ; the  saturnine  Moor  of  the  north  whets  his 
knife  and  thirsts  for  blood ; whilst  the  negro  leaps, 
and  sings,  and  dances,  and  plays  upon  his  musical 
instrument.  The  whole  country  is  a scene  of  the 
most  joyous  merriment.  Nor  are  the  Africans  des- 
titute of  regular  governments.  They  have  rulers, 
law,  and  subordination;  and,  considering  the  isola- 
tion which  has  characterized  their  history,  we  see 
some  favourable  features  in  their  condition,  calcu- 
lated to  surprise  us. 

But  still  their  moral  degradation  is  very  great. 
They  are  suffering  under  the  usual  woes  attendant 
upon  an  absence  of  correct  religious  knowledge. 
Mr.  Moffatt  thinks  he  found  some  tribes  in  southern 
Africa,  who  had  no  idea  of  a Supreme  Being,  or  in- 
deed of  any  supernatural  power  whatever.  But  this 
is  not  wholly  true  of  the  natives  of  central  and  west- 
ern Africa.  Some  of  them  have  been  converted  by 
the  Moors  to  the  Mohammedan  faith.  But  the 
mass  of  them  are  governed  by  an  abject  supersti- 
tion, which  we  may  call  Devil-worship.  To  their 
god,  who  resembles  our  idea  of  Satan,  they  fre- 
quently offer  human  sacrifices,  especially  on  occa- 
sions like  the  ratification  of  a treaty,  or  the  death  of 
a king.  It  is  recorded  that  upon  the  occasion  of 
the  death  of  one  of  the  kin^s  of  the  Aikims,  his 
2 


10 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


people  sacrificed  his  prime  minister,  three  hundred 
and  thirty-six  of  his  wives,  and  upwards  of  a thou- 
sand of  his  slaves.  The  symbol  of  their  divinity 
they  always  wear  about  the  neck,  in  the  form  of  a 
bit  of  wood,  horn,  or  other  common  material.  They 
call  it  the  fetiche,  and  place  the  utmost  reliance  on 
its  power  to  protect  them  from  all  harm. 

Cannibalism  is  not  uncommon.  There  is  one 
tribe  widely  scattered  over  the  country,  whose  food 
is  said  to  be  human  flesh,  and  human  bodies  are 
hung  up  for  sale  in  their  shambles.  Their  prison- 
ers of  war  are  fattened,  killed,  and  eaten,  or  sold  to 
the  butchers. 

But  the  grand  source  of  Africa’s  woes,  is  that 
inhuman  traffic  in  her  own  people,  which  the  civil- 
ized world  unite  in  denouncing,  and  which  several 
nations,  the  United  States  included,  have  united  in 
endeavouring  to  suppress.  This  is  the  cause  of  the 
fearful  state  of  society  which  there  exists.  This  is 
the  secret  of  their  incessant  wars.  The  Africans,  in 
their  wars,  are  not  stimulated  by  revenge,  like  our 
Indians,  nor  hurried  by  the  impulse  of  wanton 
cruelty,  like  the  Moors  of  the  desert;  nor  are  they 
prompted  by  ambition  and  a desire  to  extend  their 
dominions,  like  many  more  civilized  nations;  “but 
they  go  out  to  battle  in  order  to  steal  and  to  sell  one 
another,  and  they  exult  in  victory  in  proportion  to 
the  trophies  of  human  victims.”  I cannot  under- 
take here  to  depict  the  horrors  attendant  upon  this 
accursed  traffic.  It  is  not  merely  the  terrific  mid- 
night assault,  the  violent  seizure,  and  the  murder  of 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


11 


the  useless;  not.  merely  the  pain  of  endless  separa- 
tion between  the  captive  and  all  he  holds  dear;  not 
merely  the  miseries  of  the  passage  across,  and  the 
perpetual  servitude  brought  upon  him  and  his  pos- 
terity, but  it  is  all  these  evils  combined,  and  aggra- 
vated by  circumstances,  heart-rending  beyond  de- 
scription. In  spite  of  all  the  vigilance  of  the  armed 
squadrons  watching  the  coast,  it  was  calculated,  a 
few  years  ago,  that  near  half  a million  of  Africans 
were  annually  transported  from  Africa  to  Brazil  and 
Cuba,  chiefly,  and  sold  as  slaves;  and  it  is  an  error 
to  suppose  that  this  trade  has  been  suppressed. 

In  estimating  our  duty  to  Africa,  a large  item 
in  the  calculation  should  be  the  fact  that  Chris- 
tian nations  are  responsible  for  this  wretched  state 
of  things.  The  Governments  now  indeed  declare 
the  slave-trade  to  be  piracy,  but  the  time  was 
when  none  frowned  upon  it,  and  the  most  of 
them  encouraged  it.  What  language  can  express 
the  stringency  of  that  obligation  which  rests  upon 
those  nations,  not  only  to  suppress  the  traffic  at 
every  needed  cost,  but  to  indemnify  Africa  for 
the  awful  evils  and  incalculable  wrongs  they  have 
inflicted  upon  her!  The  sending  of  vessels  to 
guard  the  coast  may  be  considered  an  admission 
of  this  obligation.  But  the  small  results  which 
have  followed  this  effort  ought  to  show  the  govern- 
ments, who  send  these  vessels,  that  they  arc  wrong- 
ly applying  their  means.  The  profits  to  the  slavers 
are  so  enormous,  that  they  can  afford  to  lose  two- 
thirds  of  their  vessels,  and  still  derive  a handsome 


12  AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 

profit,  and  the  vast  extent  of  sea-coast,  east  as  well 
as  west,  affords  them  great  facilities  for  escaping. 
The  African  people  must  be  changed  before  this 
trade  can  be  annihilated.  Had  the  same  money 
which  has  been  required  to  sustain  these  costly 
squadrons,  been  expended  in  purchasing  territory 
along  the  coast,  and  in  settling  it  with  Christian- 
ized negroes,  far  more  would  have  been  accom- 
plished already,  and  the  foundation  been  laid  for 
its  final  extermination,  so  far  as  the  influence  of 
such  colonies  could  be  made  to  extend. 

We  speak  confidently  upon  this  subject,  because 
the  history  and  present  condition  of  Liberia  have 
demonstrated  the  superiority  of  Christian  coloni- 
zation over  all  other  modes  of  suppressing  this 
trade.  The  territory  purchased  by  the  Liberians, 
was  the  theatre  of  probably  the  most  active  scenes 
such  as  have  been  described.  They  own  over 
four  hundred  miles  of  coast,  with  average  depth 
of  thirty  miles,  and  from  this  region  and  much  of 
the  adjacent  territory,  the  slave-trade  has  been 
wholly  banished ; and  the  very  tribes  which  were 
once  foremost  in  the  business,  have  been  trans- 
formed into  peaceful  subjects  of  law,  and  indus- 
trious followers  of  legitimate  pursuits.  The  natives 
were  not  compelled  to  fly  before  the  colonists  like 
our  Indians,  but  were  allowed  to  remain,  and  be- 
come partial  citizens  of  the  Republic.  It  is  sup- 
posed that  there  are  now  about  one  hundred 
thousand  natives  within  its  limits,  and  that  two 
hundred  thousand  more  have  entered  into  covenant 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION.  }3 

with  the  authorities  of  Liberia  to  abandon  the  slave- 
trade  for  ever.  In  many  ways  these  people  are 
coming  under  the  influence  of  the  true  religion,  are 
learning  the  arts  of  civilized  life,  and  having  their 
attention  directed  to  the  abundant  sources  of  wealth, 
which  exist  around  them  in  the  vegetable  and  mine- 
ral products  of  the  country. 

A great  encouragement  to  missionary  effort  among 
these  people  is  found  in  the  absence  of  all  organized 
system  in  their  religion.  The  world  does  not  pre- 
sent another  instance  of  a people  so  free  from  fixed 
religious  ideas  and  practices.  Their  few  incoherent 
superstitious  and  idolatrous  practices  have  little  that 
is  defined  or  formidable,  compared  with  the  magnifi- 
cent system  of  the  Chinese  theology,  supported  by 
the  prestige  of  antiquity  and  venerated  names,  and 
interwoven  through  the  texture  of  an  elaborately 
constructed  empire.  Nor  is  it  to  be  compared  with 
the  subtle  and  ingenious  system  of  the  Hindus,  per- 
petuated and  rendered  imposing  by  its  philosophic 
mien,  its  voluminous  commentaries,  its  cunning  and 
numerous  priesthood,  and  the  barbaric  splendour  of 
its  public  ceremonies.  Nor  has  it  any  Grand  Lama, 
any  Prophet  of  God,  any  Incas,  any  altars,  any  tem- 
ples, any  sacred  books,  any  oracles,  any  demigods, 
any  nymphs  or  naiads,  any  system  of  caste,  or, 
indeed,  (with  the  few  exceptions  mentioned)  any 
associations  or  prepossessions,  any  old  authoritative 
errors  or  deep-rooted  prejudices,  which  would  oppose 
the  formidable  barriers  so  commonly  frowning  upon 
and  discouraging  the  Christian  missionary  in  other 


14 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


heathen  countries.  Let  the  missionary  dissolve  (as 
he  may  easily  do)  the  charm  attached  to  the  fetiche, 
and  the  poor  African  has  no  other  resource.  He  is 
then  ready  for  a change.  Many  of  them  have  im- 
bibed the  vagaries  of  Mohammed,  and  can  we  doubt 
the  easy  triumph  of  Christianity? 

In  discussing  methods  of  propagating  Christianity 
among  heathen  people,  the  question  is  sometimes 
agitated,  whether  the  best  mode  is  not  always  to 
establish  in  their  midst  Christian  communities, 
where  would  be  exhibited  the  practical  influences 
of  Christianity  in  promoting  man’s  well-being,  for 
the  life  which  now  is,  as  well  as  that  which  is  to 
come.  The  Moravians  have  usually  pursued  this 
system,  and  with  signal  success.  It  is  very  certain 
that  the  same  system  is  not  equally  appropriate  for 
all  countries.  The  ordinary  system  will  not  do  for 
the  part  of  Africa  under  consideration.  This  asser- 
tion is  verified  by  history,  and  (as  it  seems  to  me) 
by  common  sense.  Numerous  and  energetic  efforts 
have  been  made  within  the  last  three  hundred  years, 
by  both  Protestants  and  Roman  Catholics,  to  intro- 
duce the  gospel  into  this  region.  But  the  same  sad 
and  brief  history  has  characterized  them  all.  They 
were  but  a series  of  disasters  and  deaths.  The  bones 
of  devoted  missionaries  are  strewed  along  the  coast 
from  the  Senegal  to  the  Bight  of  Benin.  Up  to  the 
date  of  Colonization  all  such  efforts  failed,  and  left  no 
vestige  behind.  The  people  regarded  the  white  mis- 
sionaries as  the  Aztecs  did  the  Spaniards  who  inva- 
ded their  country,  as  a different  race  of  beings,  with 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


15 


whom  they  could  have  nothing  in  common ; and  soon 
the  missionaries  sunk  under  the  influence  of  the  cli- 
mate, and  their  labours  perished  with  them.  Al- 
though, since  the  settlement  of  Liberia,  the  climate 
seems  less  malignant  in  its  effects  upon  the  white 
man,  yet  nothing  seems  more  clearly  indicated  by 
Providence  than  that  Africa  is  not  to  be  Christian- 
ized by  the  direct  labours  of  the  white  race.  Even 
were  there  no  colonization  of  coloured  people  in 
the  country,  it  would  be  better  to  employ  coloured 
missionaries  than  white  ones.  Rev.  Mr.  Pinney 
has  shown,  by  a calculation  made  several  years  ago, 
that  the  average  missionary  life  of  white  mission- 
aries in  Africa  has  been  less  than  two  and  a half 
years,  whilst  that  of  coloured  missionaries,  even 
from  this  country,  has  been  ten  or  twelve  times  as 
long.  Of  late,  however,  the  fatality  among  the 
white  missionaries  has  not  been  so  great. 

I fully  sympathize  with  the  profound  impression 
which  is  constantly  taking  a wider  and  deeper  hold 
upon  the  American  mind,  and  is  extending  among 
the  intelligent  people  of  Great  Britain,  that  the 
mighty  and  glorious  work  of  regenerating  this  con- 
tinent, has,  in  the  scheme  of  God’s  providence,  been 
assigned  to  her  own  long  exiled  sons,  who  are  to 
return,  not  like  the  prodigal  son,  weary,  worn,  and 
wretched,  but  like  Jacob  coming  out  from  Padan- 
Aram,  all  laden  with  riches  and  full  of  hope. 
Surely  there  can  be  no  means  so  well  adapted  to 
the  end  as  this.  When  the  intelligent  American 
born  negro  touches  African  soil,  he  must  feel  some- 


16 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


what,  as  Nehemiah  did  when  returning  from  cap- 
tivity to  Jerusalem;  and  like  the  Roman  of  old,  he 
must  feel  ready  to  fall  upon  his  face  and  kiss  his 
mother  earth;  and  in  meeting  his  native  brother,  he 
can  but  acknowledge,  with  a mournful  tenderness, 
the  tie  which  binds  them  together.  They  clasp 
their  hands,  eye  meets  eye,  heart  responds  to  heart. 
One  in  colour,  one  in  taste,  one  in  temperament,  one 
in  origin,  now  one  in  residence,  one  in  interest,  must 
they  not  be  one  in  faith  and  hope,  and  through  eter- 
nity, one  and  inseparable.  Already  they  dwell  to- 
gether in  love,  and  the  work  of  deliverance  is 
rapidly  progressing.  The  Hottentot  retires  before 
the  white  colonist  of  the  south,  the  Moor  was  driven 
out  by  the  Spaniard,  the  aborigines  of  America 
could  not  be  induced  to  remain  with  the  whites,  but 
the  native  of  Africa  dwells  side  by  side  with  the 
Liberian,  lives  in  his  family,  imbibes  his  habits  and 
opinions,  submits  to  his  laws,  sits  down  with  him  in 
the  house  of  God,  and  in  every  way  shows  that  he 
feels  the  Liberian  to  be  his  brother.  The  demon- 
stration is  already  complete.  Whilst  every  effort  to 
introduce  Christianity  by  the  ordinary  system  has 
failed,  every  effort  to  introduce  it  by  negro  coloniza- 
tion has  succeeded.  Every  such  colony  still  exists, 
and  wherever  its  jurisdiction  extends,  has  banished 
piracy  and  the  slave-trade,  established  constitutional 
civil  government,  trial  by  jury,  and  the  reign  of 
law,  introduced  the  usage  and  comforts  of  civilized 
life,  and  imparted  them  to  many  of  the  nations, 
established  schools,  built  houses  of  worship,  gath- 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


17 


ered  churches,  and  maintained  the  preaching  of  the 
Gospel,  protected  missionaries  and  seen  native  con- 
verts received  into  Christian  communion.  Not  a 
colony  has  been  attempted  without  leading  to  these 
results.  Take  the  three  colonies  of  Cape  Palmas, 
(the  Maryland  colony)  Liberia  proper,  and  Sierra 
Leone,  the  British  colony,  (formed  of  slaves  who 
fled  to  the  British  during  our  Revolutionary  war) 
and  within  their  bounds  you  find  considerably  up- 
wards of  100  missionaries  and  assistant  missionaries, 
many  of  them  of  African  descent,  and  some  of  them 
native  Africans,  now  successfully  labouring  in  the 
regeneration  of  Africa ; and  we  see  as  the  true  fruit 
of  their  labours  something  like  15,000  regular  com- 
municants  in  Christian  churches,  a much  larger 
number  regular  attendants  upon  the  preaching  of 
the  Gospel,  and  many  tens  of  thousands  of  natives 
perfectly  accessible  to  Christian  influences.  All 
this  has  been  done  since  the  settlement  of  Sierra 
Leone  in  1787,  and  most  of  it  since  the  settlement 
of  Liberia,  in  1822.  The  results  of  the  other  sys- 
tem after  a trial  of  more  than  300  years,  are  cer- 
tainly very  small,  although  we  have  not  the  exact 
statistics.  Whatever  general  views  we  have  as  to 
the  best  mode  of  conducting  Christian  missions,  and 
whatever  view  we  may  take  of  colonization  in  its 
other  aspects,  one  practical  conclusion  of  incalcula- 
ble value  has  undoubtedly  been  reached,  viz.  that 
the  establishment  and  sustenance  of  colonies  of 
Christian  negroes  in  the  country  is  the  best,  if  not 
the  only  practicable  mode  of  advancing  the  civili- 
3 


18 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


zation  and  Christianization  of  Africa.  In  fact,  some- 
thing akin  to  this  is  the  ultimate  hope  of  all  for- 
eign missions.  It  is  not  expected  that  mission- 
aries will  ever  directly  Christianize  any  country. 
Their  aim  is  to  form  Christian  nuclei  in  the  shape 
of  little  native  communities,  whose  influence  will  be 
the  means  of  enlightening  and  converting  the  rest. 
African  colonization  differs  from  this  in  only  one 
respect,  which  gives  a great  advantage.  Instead  of 
awaiting  the  slow  process  of  teaching  and  elevating 
a portion  of  the  savage  nations,  in  order  that  they 
may  become  teachers  and  civilizers  of  others,  coloni- 
zation begins  where  the  missionary  leaves  off,  with  a 
Christianized  community,  not  strictly  of  natives,  but 
of  people  of  the  same  race,  who  will  naturally  exert 
as  potent  and  favourable  an  influence  on  their 
African  brethren  as  if  they  were  all  born  on  the  soil. 
There  are  some  pregnant  indications  in  recent  evo- 
lutions of  the  providence  of  God,  which  seem  to  in- 
dicate that  the  efficacious  principle  of  colonization 
is  to  be  largely  applied  in  the  world’s  conversion. 
California  and  Australia,  as  well  as  Liberia,  are  just 
now  fields  in  which  these  remarkable  indications  are 
displayed.  Had  the  discoveries  of  gold  in  these 
countries  been  made  in  the  last  century,  no  such 
sensations  could  have  agitated  the  world  as  is  now 
agitating  it.  Nations  were  then  too  isolated,  and 
ignorant  of  each  other.  No  such  commingling  of 
races  and  nations  could  then  have  taken  place  as  we 
now  behold  in  the  gold  regions ; and  more  than  this, 
the  countries  containing  the  hidden  treasure  were 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


19 


not  then  in  possession  of  truly  Christian  govern- 
ments. These  two  great  centres  of  attraction  lying 
on  opposite  sides  of  the  globe,  are  drawing  together 
great  numbers  of  people  from  a variety  of  lands, 
civilized  and  uncivilized,  where  they  are  destined  to 
come  under  Christian  influences.  The  design  of 
Providence  is  not  yet  sufficiently  manifest,  for  us  to 
say  how  far  these  remarkable  movements  are  des- 
tined to  contribute  to  the  ends  under  consideration, 
but  that  they  will  be  powerfully  effective,  none  can 
doubt ; and  mark  you,  so  far  as  they  are  effective, 
it  will  be  by  the  return  of  Christianized  Pagans  to 
their  own  countries. 

These  discoveries  of  hid  treasures  are  not  yet 
ended.  I feel  prepared  to  hazard  the  opinion  that 
the  progress  of  African  colonization  is  to  be  vastly 
accelerated  by  discoveries  which  shall  appeal  to 
the  same  acquisitive  passion  which  is  so  rapidly 
peopling  California  and  Australia.  It  was  meet 
that  the  first  founders  of  the  Liberian  nation  should 
be  men  who  were  actuated  by  nobler  motives 
than  those  appealing  to  their  cupidity.  Like  the 
Puritans  of  New  England,  the  pioneers  of  Liberian 
greatness  were  men  of  high  principle,  who  sought  a 
free  home ; and  like  the  Puritans,  they  laid  the  foun- 
dations of  their  government  in  solid  strength.  But 
the  high  motives  wThich  influenced  the  majority  of 
the  Liberian  settlers  are  not  such  as  influence  the 
majority  of  men.  Now  that  the  community  is  esta- 
blished in  all  its  essential  elements  of  prosperity,  it 
is  prepared  to  receive  those  who  can  be  attracted 


20  AFRICA'S  REDEMPTION. 

only  by  inducements  inferior  to  those  which  at- 
tracted the  original  settlers.  Multitudes  will  be 
moved  by  the  love  of  money,  who  will  not  be  moved 
by  the  desire  for  freedom,  social  equality,  and  high 
moral  elevation.  Liberia  now  appeals  to  the  latter 
motive,  and  to  some  extent  to  the  former.  Cer- 
tainly the  offerings  of  fortune  are  now  much  more 
promising  to  the  negro  in  Liberia,  than  in  any  other 
portion  of  the  world ; and  already  have  we  had  inti- 
mations that  somewhere  within  that  region  there  are 
to  be  laid  open  sources  of  wealth  as  tempting  as 
those  of  California.  Undoubtedly  vast  deposits  of 
gold  lie  imbedded  in  Western  Africa;  and  when  ex- 
posed, they  will  be  (in  a manner)  exclusively  for  the 
negro.  Even  Anglo-Saxon  enterprise  must  suc- 
cumb before  the  pestilential  air  of  Africa.  What 
use  God  means  to  make  of  the  gold  of  Africa  in  the 
furtherance  of  his  cause  on  earth,  no  man  knoweth ; 
but  supposing  the  news  come  to  America,  that  on 
the  Western  coast  of  Africa  mines  of  gold,  richer 
than  those  of  California,  have  been  discovered,  how 
quickly  would  be  dissipated  the  fierce  opposition  of 
the  masses  of  our  free  coloured  people  to  African 
colonization.  Thousands  who  are  incapable  of  being 
influenced  by  higher  motives,  would  hasten  to  the 
diggings  as  fast  as  sails  and  steam  could  carry  them; 
and  this  influence  would  be  permanent.  Suddenly 
a great  Christian  nation  of  coloured  people  would 
appear  on  the  coast,  and  out  of  this,  perhaps  venial 
cupidity,  would  grow  the  most  blessed  results  to 
that  benighted  continent.  Let  those  who  are  skep- 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


21 


tical  as  to  the  practicability  of  ever  removing  large 
numbers  of  the  coloured  population  from  this  country 
to  Africa,  consider,  in  the  light  of  European  immi- 
gration to  the  United  States,  and  the  mighty  rush  of 
people  to  Australia  and  California,  how  easily  simi- 
lar motives  would  empty  this  land  of  the  free  black 
population.  And  wherever  the  negro  goes  from 
America,  he  will  be  accompanied,  in  some  form  or 
other,  by  a pure  Christianity,  and  to  a great  extent 
by  its  resulting  civilization.  As  long  as  America 
remains  enlightened  and  civilized,  she  will  not  per- 
mit the  negro  colonies,  who  have  gone  out  from  her 
bosom,  to  sink  far  below  the  level  of  her  own  attain- 
ments. I have  great  faith  in  the  self-sustaining 
powers  of  the  improved  negro  race,  but  however 
faithless  one  may  be  as  to  this  point,  who  can  sup- 
pose the  people  of  the  United  States  to  be  so  recreant 
to  the  peculiar  relations  they  sustain  to  the  race,  as 
ever  to  withdraw  their  fostering  care,  or  even  to  fail 
in  affording  the  most  liberal  encouragement  to  all 
communities  formed  on  the  coast  of  Africa  by  ne- 
groes who  have  gone  out  from  this  country ; and  who 
could  imagine  anything  but  the  most  active  possible 
co-operation  of  the  Christian  public,  in  elevating  and 
saving  the  whole  native  population!  We  are  the 
providentially  designated  guardians  of  Africa;  and 
as  soon  might  we  expect  the  conscientious  parent  to 
see  ignorance,  degradation,  and  ruin  fasten  upon  his 
son  without  using  every  effort  to  save  him,  as  to  see 
America  allow  the  decadence  of  Liberia,  as  long  as 
it  was  possible  to  save  her.  However  strangely  the 


22  AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 

words  of  Pitt  may  have  sounded  in  the  British  Par- 
liament, forty  years  ago,  they  now  seem  only  the 
language  of  obvious  truth.  “ We  may  live,  (said  he) 
to  behold  the  natives  of  Africa  engaged  in  the  calm 
occupations  of  industry,  and  the  pursuits  of  just  and 
legitimate  commerce.  We  may  behold  the  beams  of 
science  and  philosophy  breaking  in  upon  that  land, 
which  in  some  happy  period,  at  still  later  times,  may 
blaze  with  their  full  lustre,  and  joining  their  influ- 
ence to  that  of  pure  religion,  may  illuminate  and  in- 
vigorate the  most  distant  extremities  of  that  vast 
continent.” 

Let  us  now  revert  to  the  influence  of  Liberia  on 
the  native  Africans,  as  exhibiting  the  mode  in  which 
Christian  settlements  of  coloured  people  are  calcu- 
lated to  accomplish  the  results  of  wdiich  I have  been 
speaking. 

The  natives,  who  are  interspersed  among  the 
Liberians,  and  who  come  in  great  numbers  from 
the  interior,  for  the  purposes  of  trade,  have  before 
their  eyes  a small,  but  prosperous  and  completely 
organized  nation,  composed  of  people  of  their  own 
colour.  They  see  the  land  under  culture  and  yield- 
ing, with  an  exuberance  such  as  they  have  never 
seen,  a great  variety  of  valuable  products.  Well 
ordered  farms,  producing  rice,  corn,  sugar-cane,  cas- 
sada,  cotton,  sweet  potatoes,  coffee,  &c.  meet  their 
eyes  in  many  parts  of  the  country.  They  see 
twenty  towns  composed  of  well  built  houses,  mostly 
of  stone,  brick,  and  frame,  often  painted  and  hand- 
somely furnished.  They  see  steam  mills  on  their 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


23 


rivers,  and  ships  in  their  harbours,  some  of  them 
built  by  the  Liberians.  Many  striking  attractions 
are  presented  in  Monrovia,  the  capital — a town 
having  twelve  hundred  inhabitants,  regular  streets, 
excellent  dwellings,  large  and  costly  public  build- 
ings, including  churches,  a fort,  and  a light-house,  a 
harbour  rarely  empty  of  vessels,  an  armed  and  or- 
ganized militia,  mechanical  trades,  stores  filled  with 
manufactures  of  different  kinds,  and  many  other 
things,  which,  however  common  in  civilized  coun- 
tries, are  strange  and  wmnderful  to  the  natives  of 
Africa.  Doubtless  many  of  them,  looking  upon 
Monrovia  for  the  first  time,  have  felt  like  exclaiming 
as  the  African  prince  Balia  did,  wiien  he  came  in 
sight  of  the  city  of  Baltimore,  “Man  no  make  all  dis. 
God  make  him.”  As  their  observations  continue, 
they  see  the  people  living  in  peace,  order,  happi- 
ness, and  prosperity,  under  a republican  form  of 
government.  They  see  crime  punished,  industry 
rewarded,  property  and  life  protected,  education  and 
religion  prevailing,  and  altogether  an  air  of  comfort 
and  improvement,  and  a tone  of  social  and  moral 
life,  such  as  they  have  never  dreamed  of,  much  less 
witnessed,  among  people  of  their  own  race. 

Beholding  all  this,  and  mingling  freely  with  the 
Liberians,  we  can  easily  imagine  the  impression 
which  would  be  made  upon  a shrewd,  inquisitive, 
imitative  people  like  the  Africans.  And  on  exami- 
nation, we  find  that  the  results  on  the  natives  have 
been  fully  as  great  as  the  most  sanguine  friends  of 
the  cause  anticipated.  From  the  first  settlement  of 


24 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


the  country  the  impression  made  upon  the  native 
mind,  has  been  decided.  Prince  Balia  was  a special 
envoy,  sent  by  a native  king  to  make  observations 
in  America.  The  proposition  made  to  him  by  the 
king,  is  reported  in  these  words:  “Balia,  ’spose  you 
go  to  ’merica.  You  got  my  eyes,  you  got  my  mout, 
you  got  my  ears.  You  see,  you  ’peak,  you  hear  for 
me.  What  you  see,  I see  : what  you  ’peak,  I ’peak  : 
what  you  hear,  I hear.  Den  if  all  these  things  we 
hear  be  true,  we  all  be  ’ mericans , have  ’ merica  book, 
be  good  like  dem .” 

Liberia  is  exerting  upon  Africa  an  influence 
somewhat  similar  to  that  exerted  by  this  country 
on  Europe,  yet  much  greater  in  proportion;  and 
vast  good  is  done  by  special  missionary  effort. 
There  are  a large  number  of  native  children  in  the 
schools,  where  they  commonly  evince  quickness  of 
mind  and  a desire  to  learn.  Already  a large  num- 
ber of  natives  have  learned  to  speak  the  English 
language,  are  regular  attendants  upon  church,  and 
many  of  them  are  hopeful  converts  to  the  Christian 
religion.  The  rights  of  citizenship  are  extended  to 
all  native  Africans  residing  within  the  limits  of  the 
Republic,  as  soon  as  they  manifest  sufficient  interest 
and  intelligence;  and  already  several  of  them  are  jus- 
tices of  the  peace.  And  it  is  a very  interesting  fact, 
that  the  entire  Baptist  mission  is  under  the  exclu- 
sive direction  of  native  converts.  There  are  always 
native  boys  anxious  to  be  taken  into  Liberian  fami- 
lies as  servants,  in  order  that  they  may  have  an  op- 
portunity of  acquiring  an  English  education.  A 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION.  25 

number  of  African  kings  have  sent  their  sons  from 
several  hundred  miles  in  the  interior  to  be  placed  in 
the  families  of  the  colonists.  These  return  to  their 
homes  imbued  with  new  and  noble  ideas  of  life  and 
religion.  And  the  interchange  of  commodities  is  a 
powerful  incidental  means  of  enlightenment;  and 
these  effects  will  continue  to  multiply  in  an  increas- 
ing ratio.  President  Roberts  states,  that  in  a tour 
which  he  made  some  years  ago,  extending  about 
three  hundred  miles  inland,  he  found  manifest  traces 
of  Liberian  influence  extending  through  the  entire 
distance.  There  were  persons  in  every  place  where 
he  stopped  who  could  speak  the  English  language. 
The  chiefs  of  the  tribes,  through  which  he  passed, 
evinced  the  utmost  eagerness  to  have  schools  estab- 
lished  among  them,  offering  to  erect  buildings  and 
support  institutions,  where  their  children  might  be 
taught  the  arts  of  civilization  and  the  truths  of  the 
Christian  religion.  Some  of  the  native  settlements 
in  Liberia,  composed  of  re-captured  slaves  from  the 
slave  ships,  have  been  wonderfully  assimilated  to 
those  of  the  citizens;  and  in  various  seasons  of  revi- 
val, large  numbers  of  natives  have  been  subjects  of 
grace.  I am  satisfied,  after  pretty  extensive  reading 
upon  the  subject,  that  such  an  eagerness  to  learn, 
and  such  a sincere  readiness  to  embrace  Christian- 
ity, has  not  been  evinced  by  any  other  heathen  peo- 
ple since  the  era  of  modern  missions.  It  is  amazing 
that  the  Christian  world  has  been  so  feebly  impressed 
by  the  remarkable  reception  which  Christianity  has 
met  with  in  Western  Africa.  Consider  the  stolid 


4 


26 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


indifference  of  the  American  Indians,  the  supercili- 
ous contempt  of  the  Chinese,  the  firm  bigotry  of  the 
people  of  India  and  Hindoostan,  the  bloody  rage  of 
the  South  Sea  Islanders,  and  the  various  other  forms 
of  opposition  met  with  in  most  other  portions  of  the 
heathen  world,  and  contrast  them  with  the  eager, 
grateful,  beseeching  attitude  of  the  Africans,  and 
you  cannot  fail  to  receive  the  impression  that  there 
the  Gospel  of  Christ  is  destined  to  achieve  its  speed- 
iest and  most  remarkable  triumphs.  It  would  in- 
deed seem  that  the  Spirit  of  God  had  rode  on  the 
crest  of  the  wave  of  immigration,  and  had  swept 
away  before  the  advancing  tide  every  barrier  of  op- 
position which  sin  had  erected  against  the  truth  of 
the  Son  of  God.  If  American  Christians  heed  not 
these  wonderful  beckonings  of  Providence,  if  they 
sustain  not  this  Christian  enterprise  with  a vigour 
and  liberality  corresponding  to  this  crying  demand 
for  the  Gospel,  surely  the  curse  of  Meroz  will  rest 
upon  their  souls.  Brethren,  brethren,  from  the  dark 
shades  of  Africa,  ten  thousand  brother  voices  come 
to  our  ears  in  sad  and  sorrowing  tones,  wailing  out 
their  griefs,  and  praying  us  for  light  and  life, 
through  Jesus  Christ.  Let  the  pathetic  sound  thrill 
and  melt  our  hearts ; and  soon  let  the  breezes  which 
sweep  from  the  sea  through  her  scented  groves  bear 
our  gladdening  response.  It  is  God’s  Spirit  that 
has  aroused  them  to  a sense  of  their  woes,  and 
turned  their  hearts  unto  the  Saviour  of  all  men.  He 
has  answered  almost  before  we  called.  Let  the 
Christians  of  this  land  come  up  to  the  help  of  the 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


27 


Lord,  and  soon  those  mango  groves  will  resound 
with  hymns  to  Christ,  soon  the  light  of  life  flashing 
free  throughout  that  land  will  wake  into  life  a multi- 
tude of  Christian  nations ; and  the  descending  sun 
of  Africa  will  look,  not  upon  senseless  mirth  and 
revelry,  but  upon  the  ascending  incense  of  thankful 
worship,  and  upon  all  the  tokens  of  a happy,  thriv- 
ing, and  elevated  population. 

It  should  not  be  supposed,  that  in  these  remarks 
I am  pretending  to  present  all  the  varied  and  valu- 
able aspects  of  African  Colonization.  Its  advanta- 
ges in  furnishing  the  only  solution  to  the  problem 
of  negro  emancipation,  in  securing  the  desirable 
separation  of  the  white  and  coloured  races,  in  tend- 
ing to  allay  the  most  fearful  of  all  the  excitements 
which  have  threatened  our  national  existence,  in 
conferring  incalculable  blessings  upon  the  emigrants, 
by  delivering  them  from  hopeless  thraldom  here,  and 
by  establishing  them  in  the  land  of  their  fathers, 
midst  plenty,  freedom,  knowledge,  and  religion,  and 
midst  openings  tempting  them  to  the  noblest  endea- 
vour; its  advantages  in  developing  for  the  benefit  of 
the  world,  and  especially  of  our  own  country,  the 
unimagined  riches  of  Africa — advantages,  which  it 
is  astonishing  our  Government  has  not  hastened  to 
secure,  as  she  might  so  easily  have  done — these,  and 
other  kindred  views  of  the  subject,  so  suggestive  and 
enticing,  must  be  passed  over  almost  in  silence,  as 
somewhat  inappropriate  to  this  day  and  place,  and  as 
by  far  too  copious  for  our  time.  But  this  is  less  to 
be  regretted  as  our  periodicals  and  newspapers  are 


28 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTI  0 N. 


industriously  scattering  light  upon  this  subject,  and 
that  too  from  sources  where,  awhile  ago,  the  cause 
experienced  opposition  and  misrepresentation. 

Viewing  this  project  of  African  colonization  in  all 
its  antecedents,  connections,  and  consequences,  we 
cannot  place  it  second  to  any  other  of  human  devi- 
sing. Consider  the  perplexing  problem  which  it  so 
beautifully  solves,  consider  the  gigantic  and  varied 
features  of  the  scheme  itself,  the  probable  magnitude 
of  its  many  most  desirable  results,  and  the  glory  and 
blessing  attendant  on  every  step  in  its  onward  pro- 
gress, and  where  can  be  found  an  unfolding  of  Pro- 
vidence so  stupendous  and  beneficent!  Must  there 
not  be  a remarkable  impressiveness  in  the  scheme, 
to  have  rallied  to  its  support  such  friends  as  it  has 
at  home  and  abroad.  I know  of  no  benevolent 
scheme  which  has  ever  enlisted  in  its  behalf  so 
large  and  dignified  an  array  of  piety,  talent,  wealth, 
cultivation  and  high  position  as  this.  All  the  en- 
lightened religious  bodies  of  the  country,  the  most 
of  our  State  Legislatures,  in  all  sections,  and  of  all 
parties,  (except  the  Abolitionist)  Presidents  of  the 
United  States,  (I  believe  all  of  them  since  the  foun- 
dation of  the  Society)  our  leading  philanthropists, 
our  most  distinguished  statesmen  and  divines,  the 
great  majority  of  our  newspapers  and  review's,  lite- 
rary, commercial,  political,  and  religious,  have  sanc- 
tioned and  sustained  this  cause  in  all  proper  modes, 
and  on  all  proper  occasions.  Men  of  all  creeds  in 
politics  and  religion,  men  in  all  localities  and  all 
interests,  see  in  this  many-sided  scheme,  something 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


29 


which  commends  it  to  their  judgment,  their  hearts, 
and  their  purses.  Indeed  it  might  have  been  enough 
to  say  that  in  the  religious  world,  it  had  Archibald 
Alexander  for  its  historian,  and  in  the  political 
world,  Henry  Clay  for  its  devoted  head  for  many 
long  years.  Both  may  be  placed  among  its  founders, 
as  they  were  its  fast  and  efficient  friends  through 
their  long  lives.  It  has  been  but  a brief  space  since 
Alexander  was  called  away,  full  of  years,  labours 
and  honours,  and  left  a name  not  soon  to  fade  from 
the  annals  of  the  great  and  good.  And  now  Clay 
too  has  gone.  Yes,  by  that  sad  event,  wffiich  has 
touched  the  deepest  fountains  of  national  feeling,  an 
event  which  will  awake  the  sympathies  of  the  civil- 
ized world,  and  I may  say,  which  was  so  nobly  and 
feelingly  honoured  by  the  people  of  Philadelphia,  not 
only  did  the  world  lose  a great  political  teacher,  the 
nation  an  unrivalled  statesman  and  orator,  the  realms 
of  genius  a peerless  star,  the  ranks  of  social  life  a 
man  of  outgushing  feeling,  and  amazing  powers  of 
fascination,  but  this  great  cause  of  colonization  lost 
its  oldest,  firmest,  most  devoted,  and  influential 
friend,  who  has  by  his  death  left  vacant  the  presi- 
dential chair  of  the  Society.  It  were  difficult  to  say 
which  State  has  more  loved  and  cherished  coloniza- 
tion, Virginia  or  Kentucky — but  they  are  mother 
and  daughter;  the  one  gave  Henry  Clay  a cradle, 
and  the  other  a tomb.  The  Virginians  who  laboured 
with  him  in  the  early  period  of  this  cause — such  as 
Madison,  Marshall,  Monroe,  Thornton,  Randolph, 
and  Alexander — have  mostly  gone  before  him  to  the 


30 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


grave.  Charles  Fenton  Mercer,  like  Clay,  a Virgi- 
nian by  birth,  and  a Kentuckian  by  adoption,  still 
lives  in  a green  and  vigorous  old  age,  and  deserves 
immortal  honour  as  being  among  the  first  (possibly 
the  very  first)  to  suggest,  propagate,  and  devote  him- 
self to  this  scheme  of  wisdom  and  benevolence  ; 
but  soon  the  projectors  of  this  mighty  enterprise 
will  all  be  numbered  with  the  dead. 

Thus  pass  awTay  the  mighty  and  the  excellent, 
but  their  names  and  labours  remain,  and  under 
God’s  providence  every  good  cause  moves  on  to  its 
destiny.  Few’  as  are  the  remaining  spirits  w'ho 
conceived  and  first  embodied  the  idea  of  African 
colonization,  the  cause  itself  continues,  not  only  in 
all  its  pristine  freshness,  but  gathering  strength 
with  each  revolving  year,  realizing  already  many 
of  its  splendid  designs,  shining  like  the  dawn  of 
a glorious  day  on  the  edge  of  a vast  and  benighted 
continent,  bidding  fair  to  indemnify  that  wretched 
race  of  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions 
of  people,  for  all  the  wrongs  and  untold  miseries 
which  it  has  suffered  at  the  hands  of  its  more 
enlightened  brethren.  A stupid  and  malevolent 
prejudice  may  sneer  as  it  may  at  the  apparent  insig- 
nificance of  the  results  thus  far  attained,  but  there 
stands  Liberia,  a free,  sovereign,  self-sustaining 
Republic,  acknowledged  as  such  by  the  first  powers 
of  Europe  (although  not  by  our  Government,  as 
it  ought  to  be);  there  she  stands  full  of  hope,  full 
of  courage,  and  full  of  promise.  Already  has  she 
looked  serenely  on  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  bluster- 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


31 


ing  French  Republic,  evincing  a rationality  and 
capacity  for  self-government  far  surpassing  the 
French  people,  and  having  a President  in  all 
respects  superior  to  the  coxcomb  who  rules  the 
French  nation.  There  she  stands  in  her  princi- 
ples, in  her  spirit,  in  the  moral  elevation  of  her 
people,  in  the  terms  and  tone  of  her  declaration 
of  independence,  and  I confidently  add,  in  her  pros- 
pects, a government  more  like  our  own  than  that 
of  any  other  nation  under  heaven!  Hence  comes 
the  special  propriety  of  presenting  this  subject  on 
the  anniversary  of  our  National  Independence. 
Let  this  day  be  a trysting-point,  where  annually 
these  solitary  Republics  shall  blend  their  thoughts, 
and  rejoice  in  their  related  happiness.  In  so  doing 
we  do  not  banish,  but  the  more  naturally  recall,  the 
memory  of  our  noble  history,  and  the  more  vividly 
realize  our  national  blessings. 

On  the  recurrence  of  this  fourth  day  of  July, 
the  people  of  these  United  States,  and  least  of  all, 
those  who  dwell  in  sight  of  Independence  Hall, 
cannot  forget  our  glorious  past,  or  fail  to  be  grate- 
ful for  our  present  position  and  prospects.  May 
it  ever  be  a day  of  unmingled  rejoicing,  and  of 
devout  gratitude  to  Almighty  God,  the  arbiter  of 
national  as  well  as  individual  destiny.  It  has  this 
year  fallen  upon  the  Sabbath,  and  the  pulpit  is  thus 
providentially  allowed  the  opportunity  to  add  its  tes- 
timony in  honour  of  the  day.  Let  it  never  be 
passed  in  silence — let  the  rushing  car  of  mammon 
never  reduce  it  to  the  level  of  other  days.  It  is  the 


32 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


Nation’s  Jubilee,  let  every  heart  rejoice,  and  every 
tongue  sing  aloud  with  joy.  It  is  the  Nation’s 
Sabbath,  let  the  labourer  rest,  and  the  patriot  refresh 
his  soul : let  the  Nation’s  universal,  undivided  heart 
pour  out  its  praises  to  the  Almighty  Father,  and 
supplicate  his  continued  favours.  It  is  not  a day  for 
childish  glee,  still  less  for  wild  extravagance : it  is  a 
day  for  solemn  thoughts  and  sacred  commuuings, 
and  soul-stirring  memories,  and  earnest,  unceasing, 
supplications.  But  it  is  not  a day  for  isolating  our- 
selves from  all  thoughts  of  brother  man:  To  appre- 

ciate our  own  condition,  we  must  contrast  it  with 
that  of  others : and  we  are  not  worthy  of  our  privi- 
leges if  we  do  not  sympathize  with  the  down-trodden 
and  with  the  uprising.  Certainly  of  all  others,  this 
is  not  a day  to  repudiate  the  bond  between  us  and 
Africa.  The  destinies  of  America  and  Africa  are 
undoubtedly  and  indissolubly  united.  Four  mil- 
lions of  Africa’s  sable  sons  are  now  chained  to  the 
car  of  American  liberty,  and  as  we  are  borne  along 
our  splendid  course,  we  dare  not  forget  our  dusky 
brethren,  whose  worn  and  wmary  bodies  are  dragged 
along  the  track,  and  whose  beseeching  eyes  are 
turned  to  us  for  deliverance.  The  Providence 
which  bound  them  to  us,  is  no  longer  mysterious. 
Africa’s  race  was  to  be  apprenticed  out  to  learn 
liberty  and  religion:  America  was  the  best  master 
and  the  best  teacher  to  be  found  on  the  earth : the 
apprenticeship  will  cease  at  the  appointed  time; 
the  lesson  will  then  have  been  taught  and  learned; 
and  thus  British  rapacity  will  be  overruled  by 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


33 


American  generosity  and  Christianity,  and  Africa 
redeemed. 

People  of  the  North,  your  piety  and  patriotism, 
your  interest  and  good  sense,  combine  to  rally  you,  or 
the  most  of  you,  around  all  harmonizing  measures, 
needed  to  tighten  the  bonds  of  our  confederation ; 
and  you  try  hard  to  persuade  yourselves  that  slavery 
is  not  such  a bad  thing  after  all.  But  in  your  inner 
heart  you  hate  the  institution  of  slavery,  and  you 
would  not  deserve  to  have  such  a day  as  this  in  your 
annals  if  you  did  not  hate  it.  But  it  becomes  you, 
in  dealing  with  this  subject,  to  seek  the  broadest  and 
most  comprehensive  views,  and  above  all,  to  be 
guided  by  an  intelligent  Christian  love.  There  are 
ways  of  shaking  a tree  which  only  makes  it  drive 
its  roots  deeper  into  the  earth.  I feel  confident  in 
declaring  that  in  principle  and  policy,  the  coloniza- 
tion movement  furnishes  a safe,  and  the  only  safe, 
guide.  Attempting  to  act  upon  slavery  in  any  other 
spirit,  and  on  any  other  principles,  is  unwise,  useless, 
and  utopian,  aye,  it  is  ruinous.  The  old  fable  here 
is  just  in  place.  The  wind  and  sun  vied  with  each 
other  to  strip  the  cloak  from  the  traveller.  The  wind 
raged  and  stormed,  but  the  traveller  the  more  reso- 
lutely wrapped  his  cloak  around  him.  As  soon  as 
the  wind  ceased  its  blowing,  the  sun  came  out  with 
its  smiling  face  and  gentle  beams,  and  the  traveller 
laid  off  his  cloak  for  his  own  comfort  and  convenience. 
Abolitionism  is  the  wind  ; Colonization  is  the  sun. 

Abolitionism  has  never  caused  the  honest  emanci- 
pation of  a single  slave,  has  in  no  single  particular 
5 


34 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


bettered  the  condition  of  the  slave,  nor  has  it  really 
elevated  any  portion  of  the  negro  race;  it  has  sent 
no  missionary,  no  Bible,  no  cup  of  cold  water  even, 
to  the  poor  wretches  over  whom  they  shed  their 
crocodile  tears ; but  on  the  contrary,  this  satanic 
faction  has  exasperated  many  a benevolent  master, 
who  was  inclined  to  emancipate  his  slaves,  and  thus 
secured  their  perpetual  bondage;  it  has  taken  the 
Bible  and  all  other  books  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
slave,  by  causing  laws  to  be  passed,  in  self-defence, 
which  forbids  him  to  learn  to  read ; has  forced 
the  master  to  tighten  the  rein  and  watch  his  ser- 
vant with  a cold  and  jealous  eye ; has  curtailed  his 
legal  liberty  in  all  respects,  and  at  the  same  time, 
has  made  the  poor  bondsman  restless  and  wretched 
from  the  vague  hope  of  emancipation;  has  caused 
countless  murders  and  many  insurrections,  in  which 
the  negro  always  was  the  greater  sufferer  without 
gaining  the  slightest  advantage;  has  led  to  many 
attempts  at  escape  which  ended  in  the  negro's  pun- 
ishment and  worse  enslavement;  has  kept  many  in- 
nocent hearts  in  the  most  distressing  state  of  alarm. 
It  has  curtailed,  indeed,  almost  annihilated  free  dis- 
cussion of  the  subject  in  the  South ; it  has  rallied 
thousands  to  the  support  of  slavery,  who  else  would 
have  been  labouring  for  its  extermination  ; indeed,  it 
is  clearly  responsible  for  the  present  existence  of  sla- 
very in  Maryland,  Kentucky,  and  Virginia:  it  has 
inspired  trie  free  black  population  with  hopes  never 
to  be  realized,  (as  Mr.  Birney  himself  is  now  forced 
to  admit)  and  made  them  more  despised  by  the 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


35 


sober  part  of  the  community,  in  proportion  as  they 
have  chafed  against  the  bars  of  their  deepening 
degradation. 

Such  are  some  of  the  crimes  of  abolitionism; 
but  these  are  not  all,  nor  the  worst.  It  is  respon- 
sible for  all  the  turmoil  and  trepidation  attend- 
ing the  passage  and  the  several  enforcements  of 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  What  do  Isay?  Aboli- 
tionism is  responsible  for  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law 
itself.  The  law  sprang  out  of  the  monster’s  own 
loins,  and  now  it  gnashes  its  teeth  upon  its  own  pro- 
geny. It  was  abolitionism  that  forced  the  law  into 
existence : if  the  former  had  not  existed,  the  latter 
would  not  have  been  needed.  There  would  have 
been  few  fugitives  to  catch,  and  still  fewer  owners 
who  would  have  cared  to  take  the  trouble  to  catch 
them,  had  they  been  let  alone.  And  more  than 
this,  abolitionism  with  all  its  prating  about  Ameri- 
can liberty,  is  the  greatest  foe  American  liberty  has 
to  contend  against.  It  is  not  only  a one-idea  party, 
but  it  is  a party  demented  about  an  abstraction,  with- 
out the  slightest  reference  to  the  modifications  which 

o 

every  principle  undergoes  in  practical,  and  especial- 
ly in  complicated,  application.  And  consequently 
its  spirit  is  the  most  turbulent,  explosive,  disorgan- 
izing, and  hence  reactionary,  of  all  others.  Even 
Abolitionists  are  compelled  to  admit  that  abstractions 
are  often  wholly  reversed  in  practice.  You  may  hear 
one  of  them  arguing  that  free  trade,  as  an  abstract 
doctrine,  is  the  true  law  of  international  exchanges, 
wThilst  the  circumstances  of  a particular  nation  may 


3G  AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 

totally  reverse  the  doctrine  and  make  the  tariff  a pro- 
priety. You  may  hear  another  arguing  that  whilst 
“ thou  shalt  not  kill'’  is  the  true  law  in  morals  and 
religion,  yet  killing  may  become  a propriety,  an  im- 
perative duty,  in  certain  circumstances.  And  so  of 
innumerable  other  principles,  and  less  or  more  of 
all  principles,  certainly  of  all  belonging  to  terrestrial 
relations.  And  yet  these  men  seize  hold  of  the  ab- 
straction that  “ all  men  being  free  and  equal,  and 
having  certain  inalienable  rights,  the  holding  of  a 
man  in  bondage  is  a sin  and  a shame,”  and  try 
to  run  it  like  a red-hot  ploughshare  through  soci- 
ety, in  utter  defiance  of  all  attending  and  modifying 
circumstances;  and  they  would  rip  up,  run  over,  and 
plough  under,  the  very  foundations  of  every  struc- 
ture, sacred,  civil,  and  social,  as  savagely  and  re- 
morselessly as  a madman  gashes  the  bodies  of  the 
members  of  his  own  family.  Such  a spirit,  if 
allowed  to  become  dominant,  would  transform  this 
earth  into  a slaughter-house,  and  drive  the  race  of 
man  to  such  a pitch  of  infatuated  wretchedness  as 
never  has  been  reached  in  the  most  disastrous  times. 
From  the  character  of  its  results,  so  far  as  felt,  you 
easily  perceive  its  virulent  and  dissolving  tendency. 
Behold  the  sectional  animosities  it  has  called  into 
being,  and  the  fierce,  unbrotherly  feelings,  words, 
and  acts,  of  which  it  has  been  the  author.  Its  hot 
temper  scalds  whatever  it  touches.  Look  into  its 
newspapers,  and  you  find  such  a satanic  rage  as  is 
evinced  in  no  other  quarter,  except  the  fountain- 
head; enter  its  meetings,  and  see  the  ravings  and 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


37 


frot.hings  of  its  orators;  see  its  clerical  advocates 
sparkling  with  fire — ministers  of  the  meek  and  gen- 
tle Jesus,  “breathing  out  threatenings  and  slaugh- 
ter” against  their  fellow-men,  multitudes  of  them 
their  fellow  Christians.  See  its  demoniacal  workings 
in  our  national  councils,  the  bad  passions  which  it 
stirs  up,  the  disgraceful  scenes  which  it  occasions, 
and  the  chasm  of  destruction  to  the  verge  of  which 
it  has  so  often  dragged  the  nation. 

And  still  the  catalogue  of  its  crimes  is  not  ended. 
It  is  the  source  and  front,  the  active  vanguard  of  in- 
fidelity. It  runs  its  fiery  abstraction  into  the  leaves 
of  the  Bible  with  as  daring  a recklessness  as  into  the 
frame-work  of  society.  If  on  the  rack,  the  Bible 
testify  not  to  their  one  idea,  it  must  be  burnt  like  a 
witch — it  is  evil-possessed.  Almost  any  thorough 
abolitionist  will  say,  “ If  the  Bible  sanctions  slavery, 
down  with  the  Bible.”  His  human  reason  under- 
takes to  judge  God,  contradict  him,  defy  him,  and 
dethrone  him.  That  is  abolitionism,  and  nothing 
less  or  more ! Many  good  Christian  men  act  with 
the  party  without  seeing  what  others  see,  that  pure 
abolitionism  is  but  a fierce  and  arrogant  form  of 
rationalistic  infidelity,  and  that  really  it  is  now  doing 
more  to  spread  abroad  and  infuse  into  the  popular 
mind  at  the  North,  a Christ-hating,  God-defying 
tone  and  temper,  than  any  other  evil  influence  that 
is  at  work  in  the  land.  In  a word,  here  are  the 
results  at  which  the  leaders  of  this  party  manifestly 
point.  The  slave  being  essentially  his  own  man,  he 
may  and  should  not  only  lay  every  sort  of  tax 


38 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


upon  his  master’s  property  as  indemnity,  but  also 
demand,  and  if  necessary,  coerce  his  freedom.  The 
plain  meaning  of  this  principle  is,  that  there  should 
be  a general  insurrection  among  the  slaves  in  the 
South,  in  which  they  should  murder  all  men,  wo- 
men, and  children,  who  do  not  at  once  sanction  their 
claims.  Secondly,  that  form  of  society  in  which  sla- 
very can  reside  in  peace,  must  be  radically  wrong. 
Therefore  the  structure  must  be  torn  down,  as  an 
old-fashioned,  ricket}’-  building  is  torn  down  in  a 
fashionable  street,  and  an  entire  reconstruction  of 
the  edifice  be  made  on  free  and  socialistic  principles. 
Thirdly,  the  political  confederation  which  can  recog- 
nize and  tolerate  slavery  as  a legal  institution,  must 
be  a rotten,  disgraceful  concern.  Hence  this  Ameri- 
can Union  must  be  exploded.  And  fourthly,  the 
religion  which  can  even  be  suspected  of  sanctioning 
the  monstrous  iniquity  must  be  devilish,  and  not 
divine.  Therefore,  the  Bible  is  either  uninspired, 
and  a mass  of  mingled  truth  and  error,  or  it  is 
one  gigantic  scheme  of  imposition : or,  at  the  least, 
Christianity  as  commonly  held  is  a lie,  and  an 
incubus,  and  the  sooner  it  is  thrown  off  the  bet- 
ter, and  men  be  left  to  the  glories  of  a natural 
religion,  developed  from  the  ultimate  principle 
of  Abolition  liberty — which  means,  abolish  God, 
abolish  Christ,  abolish  the  Church,  abolish  the 
ministry,  abolish  the  government,  abolish  society, 
abolish  the  family,  abolish  penalties,  abolish  com- 
promise, abolish  decency ; and  revel  in  all  the  de- 
lights of  their  opposites,  especially  of  anarchy  and 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


39 


licentiousness,  deification  of  man  and  defiance  of 
God.  And  now,  amidst  all  the  smoke  and  carnage 
of  a triumphant  abolitionism,  what  good  will  accrue 
to  the  poor  negro,  either  in  America  or  in  Africa. 
For  his  condition  of  present  degradation,  they  pro- 
mise him  only  a fate  growing  for  ever  darker,  and 
deeper,  and  more  appalling.  Such  is  abolitionism 
displayed,  according  to  my  understanding  of  its 
principle,  is  spirit,  and  its  tendency. 

And  now  for  a moment  refresh  yourselves  by 
contrasting  with  this  anti-slavery  madness,  the  calm, 
dignified,  wise,  efficient  and  beneficent  proceedings, 
achievements  and  tendencies  of  African  colonization. 
Its  simple,  fundamental  aim,  is  the  transfer  of  free 
coloured  people  to  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  to  that 
aim  it  consistently  and  undeviatingly  adheres.  But 
yet,  as  was  expected  and  desired,  its  influence  is 
great  and  growing  in  many  directions ; and  its  actual 
effects  thus  far  have  been  happy  beyond  all  reason- 
able expectation.  It  has  been  the  direct  cause  of 
delivering  from  bondage  many  thousands  of  slaves, 
(about  one  half  of  the  whole  number  sent  to  Liberia, 
have  been  emancipated  slaves);  it  has  provided  what 
Mr.  Jefferson  and  other  statesmen  anxiously  sought, 
a kind,  safe  and  feasible  mode  of  disposing  of  that 
large  class  of  slaves,  who  are  held  in  bondage  only 
for  the  want  of  some  such  provision ; it  is  causing 
thousands  of  masters  to  begin  a quiet  and  gradual 
preparation  for  ultimately  liberating  their  slaves,  and 
thus  helping  to  raise  the  intellectual  and  moral  con- 


40 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


dition  of  the  entire  slave  population  ; it  has  gently, 
though  efficiently,  promoted  the  general  spirit  of 
emancipation  in  the  South  : it  alone  makes  emanci- 
pation a blessing  to  either  race : it  is  now  a star  of  hope 
to  all  true  and  rational  lovers  of  negro  freedom  : it  has 
soothed  sectional  animosities:  it  has  united  the  body 
of  the  great  and  good  in  all  sections  of  the  Union,  and 
has  powerfully  tended  to  neutralize  and  overcome  the 
disorganizing  tendencies  of  abolitionism.  More  and 
better  than  all,  it  has  allied  itself  in  the  closest  har- 
mony with  Christianity  in  its  present  and  most  catho- 
lic form,  or  rather,  I should  say,  it  is  permeated  tho- 
roughly with  the  pure  essence  of  our  divine  religion. 
Politicians,  preachers,  and  the  people  generally,  for- 
get their  sectional  and  sectarian  feelings  and  interests 
under  the  benign  influences  of  colonization.  Christi- 
anity rules,  directs,  and  accompanies  this  movement 
in  all  its  parts.  It  were  enough  to  say  that  it  has, 
within  twenty-five  years,  reared  a Christian  Republic 
on  a distant  coast,  in  the  midst  of  heathen  darkness. 
Already  has  it  accomplished  good,  and  only  good  : it 
has  accomplished  all  that  it  set  out  to  accomplish 
thus  far.  Its  future  is  bright;  it  is  radiant  with  the 
most  glorious  promise.  How  far  it  is  to  go  in  the 
actual  lifting  off  of  the  chains  of  the  enslaved,  cannot 
now  be  affirmed,  but  certainly  all  the  indications 
tend  only  to  it  as  the  high-way  for  the  exode  of  the 
liberated  captives. 

If  you  will  allow  me  to  try  your  patience  yet  far- 
ther, I shall  indulge  in  a few  general  thoughts  on  the 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


41 


interworking  of  these  antagonistic  principles  in  our 
nation,  especially  as  it  affects  the  condition  and  pros- 
pects of  the  negro  race. 

The  God  whose  province  it  is  to  bring  good  out  of 
evil,  and  whose  administrative  policy  seems,  in  many 
of  its  aspects,  to  be  a system  of  checks  and  balances, 
has  made  even  abolitionism  an  incidental  advantage, 
in  some  respects,  to  both  colonization  and  emancipa- 
tion, just  in  the  way  which  those  under  the  influence 
of  the  mania  least  expected.  Had  there  been  no  abo- 
lition furor  against  the  scheme  of  African  colonization, 
it  would  doubtless  have  soon  become  popular  with 
the  free  blacks  who  are  much  influenced  by  their 
cruel  friends,  and  then  the  infant  colony  would  have 
been  overrun  w'ith  emigrants,  and  been  thrown  into 
confusion  by  the  unwieldy,  incoherent  mass  put 
upon  it.  The  colony  has  increased  nearly  as  fast  as 
was  consistent  with  solidity  and  permanency.  The 
hard  and  lasting  woods  are  those  wThich  grow  slowly. 
The  same  cause  prevented  the  slaveholders  from 
liberating  as  fast  as  they  would  otherwise  have  done, 
which  has  been  no  disadvantage.  It  has  had,  too, 
a winnowing  action  upon  emigration,  tending  to 
check  the  weak  and  ignorant,  and  unenterprising, 
and  to  send  only  those  of  a superior  order,  who  were 
not  to  be  daunted  by  passionate  abuse  and  misrepre- 
sentation, nor  by  the  inconveniences  of  the  newr 
country.  And  it  may  be  that  God  allowed  the  abo- 
lition party  to  rise  up  as  a check  to  the  general 
work  of  slave  emancipation,  to  keep  the  slave  where 
he  was  taken  care  of,  until  his  home  was  ready  for 
6 


42 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


him  to  go  into;  but  for  this  party,  the  fetters  of  the 
slave  would  have  been  flying  in  fragments  in  all  di- 
rections. The  South,  if  let  alone,  would  spew  out 
slavery  in  less  than  a generation.  No  one  but  a 
Southerner  knows,  or  can  know,  how  general  is  the 
antipathy  of  the  Southern  people  to  the  institution. 
They  know  well  that  they  are  the  chief  sufferers  in 
the  matter ; and  they  would  gladly  deliver  them- 
selves. But  it  is  not  human  nature,  certainly  not 
American  nature,  to  be  lashed  into  anything.  You 
may  want  to  bestow  a charity  on  the  suffering,  but 
your  feelings  would  be  very  much  changed,  did  a 
man  undertake  to  whip  you  into  the  measure.  Hence 
this  meddlesome  party  may  have  been  raised  up  like 
Pharaoh,  just  to  keep  these  people  in  bondage  for 
their  ultimate  good.  Their  country  is  not  ready  for 
them  all,  and  they  are  not  all  ready  for  freedom. 
Meanwhile,  colonization  is  shedding  upon  them  an 
influence  which  must  gradually  elevate  their  condi- 
tion whilst  they  remain  in  bondage,  and  thus  prepare 
them  for  the  day  of  deliverance.  Its  influence  is 
exerted  silently,  and  almost  imperceptibly,  and  in 
the  most  persuasive  and  salutary  manner;  and  grad- 
ually the  colonization  principles  will  triumph  over 
the  abolition,  by  making  more  friends,  and  by  ulti- 
mately converting,  purifying,  and  absorbing  the 
abolition  party  itself. 

Messrs.  Greely  and  Birney  are  only  the  first 
fruits  of  the  triumphs  of  colonization  in  winning  its 
enemies.  They  will,  and  must  resort  to  African 
emigration  as  the  only  hope  for  negro  elevation. 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


43 


Meanwhile,  colonization  is  silently  lifting  the  entire 
coloured  population  in  America.  This  it  does  by 
first  calling  a general  and  kindly  attention  to  the  con- 
dition of  this  population — whence  grows  an  honest 
and  inquisitive  interest  in  their  welfare.  The  public 
feelings,  instead  of  being  exasperated,  are  softened 
and  tenderly  enlisted  by  the  way  in  which  coloniza- 
tion presents  the  case  of  the  negro.  Then,  along 
with  the  perception  of  the  avoidable  evils  in  the  con- 
dition of  this  race  among  us,  goes  corresponding 
efforts  for  his  relief  and  improvement.  To  this,  no 
doubt,  is  to  be  attributed  in  considerable  measure,  the 
increasing  interest  which  is  felt  in  giving  religious 
instruction  to  coloured  people,  and  in  some  places  in 
free  States,  in  regularly  educating  them.  And  the 
reflex  influence  of  the  Liberian  Republic  is  already 
powerfully  felt  for  the  good  of  the  race  here.  Colo- 
nization has  taken  the  negro  from  under  his  disabili- 
ties  here,  and  placed  him  where  he  has  developed 
to  an  intellectual  and  moral  stature  never  reached 
before  by  his  race,  and  now  holds  him  up  as  the 
optical  demonstration  of  what  the  negro  may  easily 
become.  Whole  nebulae  of  phrenological  specula- 
tions and  scientific  infidelities  have  thus  been  dissi- 
pated ; and  there,  star-like,  shines  out  the  negro 
intellect,  clear  and  bright.  There,  intelligence,  free- 
dom, and  religion,  flourish  amongst  the  descendants 
of  Ham — amidst  the  much  maligned  Ethiopian  race. 
This  exhibition  must  greatly  affect  the  minds  of  phi- 
lanthropists and  slaveholders.  “ What  right  have 
we  (will  they  argue)  to  allow  these  people  to  exist 


44 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


among  us  in  such  ignorance  and  degradation,  when 
they  have  in  them  the  germ  of  so  fine  a development. 
We  must  improve  them,  even  if  they  are  to  stay 
among  us — we  dare  not  leave  them  as  they  are.” 
Even  at  the  North,  the  neglected  negro  will  have 
efforts  made  in  his  behalf.  The  Liberians  have 
schools,  academies,  and  ere  long  will  have  colleges : 
why  should  we  not  provide  schools,  academies,  and 
colleges  for  our  coloured  people  at  home : why 
should  we  not  have  theological  seminaries,  normal 
schools,  agricultural  schools,  for  them,  where  the 
great  leaders  of  the  coloured  race  would  be  trained 
and  sent  forth!  Such  must  be  the  reflex  influence  of 
Liberia  upon  America.  North  and  South,  the  con- 
dition of  the  blacks  will  gradually  improve,  and  as  it 
improves  so  will  they  grow  in  fitness  for  freedom, 
and  as  they  become  intelligent  and  aspiring,  will  the 
free  blacks  of  the  north  become  dissatisfied  with  their 
disfranchised  condition  here,  and  be  attracted  to  the 
coloured  Republic  beyond  the  ocean,  where  they  may 
-have  scope  for  their  utmost  powers.  And  thus  edu- 
cation, love  of  gold,  (as  before  alluded  to,)  oppression, 
emancipation,  Christian  zeal,  and  even  abolitionism, 
will  conspire  to  empty  our  land  of  these  aliens,  and 
to  lift  Liberia  to  a noble  elevation  in  the  scale  of 
nations. 

There  appears  to  my  mind  a tender  and  remarka- 
ble coincidence  between  the  bondage  of  Africans  in 
America,  and  the  ancient  bondage  of  the  Jews  in 
Egypt.  Your  own  minds  can  easily  trace  the  most 
obvious  features  of  the  comparison.  The  analogy, 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


45 


however,  consists  in  more  than  the  mere  carrying 
away,  the  enslavement,  and  the  rendition ; it  is  des- 
tined to  be  carried  out  in  the  greatness  of  the  work 
achieved  by  both  alike  in  the  world’s  progress.  You 
at  first  may  be  incredulous,  and  so  would  an  Egyp- 
tian have  been  incredulous,  had  one  pointed  to  the 
degraded  people  they  owned,  and  said  that  they 
were  the  most  important  people  on  earth.  Imagine 
yourselves  standing  by  an  Egyptian  brick-yard, 
seventeen  hundred  years  before  Christ,  and  looking 
upon  the  despised  and  oppressed  Hebrews  working 
in  the  mortar-beds,  gathering  straw,  cutting  and 
drying  brick,  with  cruel  task-masters  standing  over 
them,  and  ordering  them  hither  and  thither  in  the 
most  supercilious  tones.  It  would  be  hard  for  you 
to  believe  that  that  race  were  destined  to  return  and 
possess  the  rich  lands  of  their  fathers,  to  build  splen- 
did cities,  to  have  powerful  armies,  to  have  enlight- 
ened kings  and  prophets  of  God,  and  at  last  to  give 
to  the  world  a Saviour.  But  all  this  and  far  more 
came  to  pass.  We  do  not  expect  another  Messiah. 
But  we  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  Afri- 
cans will  have  their  Moses  and  their  Joshua,  their 
David  and  their  Isaiah,  who,  if  not  inspired,  will* 
yet  be  their  God-sent  teachers  and  deliverers.  And 
there  is  scarcely  a people  living  who  promise  to 
play  so  interesting  and  important  a part  in  the 
world  for  the  next  century  or  two  as  these  negroes, 
free  and  enslaved,  whom  we  have  in  our  country. 
If  they  are  to  return  to  their  land  and  to  regenerate 
their  race,  with  what  a profound  interest  should  we 


46 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


regard  this  commonly  despised  population;  and  how 
vigorously  should  we  address  ourselves  to  the  work 
of  teaching  them  who  are  to  teach  a vast  and  teem- 
ing continent.  There  is  no  time  to  be  lost.  The 
work  moves  on  to  its  consummation.  Individuals 
and  legislatures  are  offering  large  means  to  send 
those  who  are  willing  to  go.  And  it  is  hoped  that 
ere  long  our  general  government,  with  its  ocean 
steamers,  its  overflowing  treasury,  and  its  sense  of 
obligation  to  Africa,  will  lay  hold  of  this  work  and 
push  it  forward  with  all  of  its  mighty  energies. 
And  I am  not  destitute  of  hope  that  England  and 
Germany  will  yet  remember,  with  suitable  com- 
punctions, whence  came  American  slavery,  who  it 
was  that  brought  this  African  race  from  their  land 
to  this;  and  that  these  memories  will  assist  their 
general  philanthropy  and  Christian  zeal,  and  cause 
them  to  render  us  their  powerful  aid  in  this  work. 
Indeed  a great  eleemosynary  scheme  like  this,  affect- 
ing so  large  a portion  of  the  wrorld’s  inhabitants,  has 
all  the  proper  elements  of  a world’s  charity.  Already 
has  this  cause  found  favour  and  received  substantial 
aid  in  England,  from  both  individuals  and  the  gov- 
ernment. France,  England,  and  Prussia  have  all 
acknowledged  Liberia  as  belonging  to  the  family 
of  nations.  And  w’hy  may  wre  not  entertain  the 
hope,  that,  in  time,  all  the  Christian  nations  of  the 
world  will  be  assisting  in  some  department  of  Afri- 
can regeneration,  by  means  of  colonization  from 
America. 

We  at  this  moment  have  every  indication  of  an 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


47 


increasing  interest  on  the  subject  among  the  col- 
oured people  of  our  country,  and  an  increasing  dis- 
position to  emigrate.  Indications  of  this  are  seen  in 
every  part  of  the  land,  north,  south,  east,  and  west. 
Neighbourhoods  here  and  there  are  holding  conven- 
tions,  and  sending  delegations  to  Liberia,  to  report 
on  the  state  of  things  there — and  such  delegations, 
I believe,  have  always  reported  favourably. 

But  to  recur,  in  conclusion,  to  the  practical  view 
of  the  subject.  Not  only  is  money  needed  for  trans- 
ferring the  emigrants  from  America  to  Africa,  and 
for  sustaining  educational  and  missionary  efforts  in 
and  about  the  republic  of  Liberia,  but  the  most  im- 
mediate and  vigorous  efforts  are  needed  to  'prepare 
the  population  here  for  the  destiny  that  awaits  them. 
Let  not  the  work  of  emigration  proceed  faster  than 
the  work  of  home  preparation,  which  is  necessary 
to  make  emigration  a blessing  to  Africa.  Look 
around  us  and  behold  the  sad  and  neglected  condi- 
tion of  the  mass  of  our  coloured  population.  How 
can  we  expect  or  desire  such  people  to  be  the  teach- 
ers of  Africa,  to  be  the  representatives  of  American 
republicanism  and  American  Christianity.  In  many 
individual  cases,  may  you  find  among  us  coloured 
men  of  intelligence  and  high  moral  character,  but 
it  is  not  so  with  the  masses  of  them,  and  the  reason 
is,  that  they  have  been  a despised  and  shamefully 
neglected  people. 

Brethren,  a thousand  weighty  motives  call  upon  us 
to  turn  our  kindly  attention  upon  the  African  race. 
Let  us  not  be  guided  by  a fanatical  zeal,  but  by  a 


48 


AFRICA’S  REDEMPTION. 


* 

Christian  philanthropy,  which  is  wise,  mild,  and  in- 
domitable. The  negro  is  our  brother  and  our  ward : 
and  Cod  will  hold  us  responsible  for  liis  training 
and  for  his  end,  temporal  and  eternal.  He  may,  by 
suitable  effort,  become  a blessing  and  an  ornament 
to  the  earth,  and  by  God’s  mercy,  an  heir  of  eternal 
glory.  And,  O,  in  the  great  and  solemn  day  of  the 
Lord,  when  we  behold  millions  of  Africa’s  redeemed 
children  with  crowns  on  their  heads  and  palms  in 
their  hands,  falling  into  the  line  of  God's  sacra- 
mental host,  how  will  our  hearts  swell  with  joy  to 
think  that  we  were  permitted  to  bear  even  the 
humblest  part  in  sending  Christ’s  religion  to  their 
shores,  and  scattering  the  darkness  from  their 
minds. 


THE  END. 


